Child given money by "Vicar" at school

[TakeALookAtTheseSwatches]

So my 10 year old daughter (year 5) came home from school on Thursday and told us the Vicar (possibly just a trainee, I'm not entirely sure) who was taking their collective worship at school gave her £5 to "get herself an Easter treat" and that it was "just between me and you" I asked her if she told the teacher and she said no. I feel quite uneasy about this, should I say something to the school?

You're not being thick! It's fine to send the email to the general address. Someone will pick it up.
Has your DD shared any information which could help further?

After your email I would go in immediately on first day back, ask for a meeting with the Head. Ask for an immediate investigation and plan on escalating to diocese, Ofsted, Governors and the church in question if not satisfactorily resolved. If this is true it’s a huge red flag and that man shouldn’t be visiting schools or in contact with children.

I've been following the OP's posts on this thread (although not everything else), and I can't believe after 19 pages people are banging on about email addresses.

I did ask her if anyone else saw and she said a girl saw it happen and asked her about it but she lied (because she'd been told to "keep it between me and you") and said it was from her bag. I'm hoping they've got CCTV in the hall so it can be properly cleared up.

Perhaps someone at school could speak to that girl. CCTV would be a great help.

As well as being a clear safeguarding red flag for the school, anyone in the clergy should have been through safeguarding training. The DSL at school needs to know, and it will also need to be reported to the parish team. Not sure whose responsibility the latter is, but these are two organisations with a statutory responsibility to keep children safe.

I'm so sorry.

That is shocking. She’s lucky to have you and that she’s told you. Good luck and hopefully it gets addressed properly. What a creep.

Bloody hell

Someone gives a kid a fiver in a public place and they are automatically a groomer? When is this vicar going to see your kid again OP? At the Christmas service? When are they going to get your child alone to groom them?

“If the matter is a child protection emergency during a school holiday, please contact the Local Authority’s children's services team or the police directly.”

From our local schools website

Oh in that case, never mind, hey. Hopefully that vicar with potentially questionable boundaries isn’t in contact with other kids regularly then, oh, wait…

Egged on by mumsnet. "vicar". The OP doesn't know it was a vicar. And has said her kid tells lies

You need to make sure the school deal with this formally and demand that your child is never left alone with or put in groups with that man ever again.

If I were you, I would also take that money back to him personally and ask that he never gift anything or attempt to bribe your child to keep a secret again, making it clear that if he did you would be raising it with Police, the diocese and the LEA.

This is as inappropriate an interaction, short of physical abuse, I can imagine.

I understand your need to ensure DD has told the truth here but be ready for him to lie to cover his own ass.

The vicar was a familiar face at our village CofE school. Weekly assemblies, services in church, present at fetes and performances etc.

If he'd given my kid money I would have lost my shit.

A child protection emergency means a child is in current or immediate danger.

Not the case here.

Hope they reply tomorrow

Posters are jumping to the conclusion that the person is male.. yet op has not used specific pronouns and in fact said their...

Would your feelings be the same if it was a female vicar (which is acceptable in CofE)

Writing as a vicar, whether male or female this shouldn't have happened.
I would however query if this was the cofe vicar as at 11am on maundy Thursday all vicars are meant to be at a service in the cathedral.in our diocese that is a 3 line whip you need to be there by 10 and don't tend to leave until about 1. The likelihood of putting on an assembly the same day is very low.
It is of course possible other dioceses don't have the same 3 line whip.
It is however possible that the person taking the assembly wasn't the vicar (or curate) but a 'helper' from the church if the vicar was busy. Still totally wrong. I can't imagine as a vicar how you could even end up sat next to a child in a school hall and giving them money and no one seeing. I would be seriously also questioning the school how a vicar ended up alone with a pupil, they can't have had a conversation privately 'during' assembly as they wouldn't be able to talk even if someone else was leading at that point. Again this isn't me saying it didn't happen, I think it needs investigating, just that it needs investigating as to how the school allowed circumstances for such an event to take place need looking at too.
And apologies if I am repeating others it's been a very busy couple of weeks and I haven't had time to read the full thread.

Agree with a lot of this. Assemblies are multiple year groups so it's not like only one staff member would be present. Presumably the adults sit alongside the children (on chairs) and the vicar would be offered a seat too (or this would be the set up on my school). I don't know how they would be able to engage a child in a private chat and hand over money without multiple other children seeing and asking about it.
I know when I sit in assembly if I try to get the attention of one child to tell them to stop talking for example, even with a hissed whisper, multiple eyes are on me. If I sit on the floor to support a 1:1 child and give them something to fidget with you can guarantee all children in the immediate area need reminding to look at the front and not watch what the 1:1 child is doing/playing with. I also don't know how they would have hid the money once given it. Do they have pockets in their clothes? Then transfer to their bag at break/lunch? Ask to go to the toilet to hide the money?
This is why it needs investigating by the school initially rather than jumping straight onto call on the police.
I would also be talking to the child about the serious nature of the event (especially knowing that they lie) and make them aware that it is good they have told what happened but to make sure the information is definitely what happened.
Have the been told the school will be made aware?
I am just thinking about some children who do compulsively lie. Even when told of the consequences to others they will not back down until it eventually gets to a headteacher point having wasted TA and teacher time and the stories end up being false. I would be making sure DD is aware of the boy who cried wolf and how telling lies may make people less likely to believe in the future.

So apparently the Vicar was sat on the sofa at the very back of the hall, my daughter was sat slightly behind the back row because there wasn't too much room, she said it was at the very end of assembly when there was a song so people were maybe standing/moving around/singing. She's quite small so it would have been possible that the kids in front obscured the view of anyone else. I did ask what she did with the fiver and she said she put it up her sleeve.

Don't be ridiculous. Of course there is.

You could ask her where the class teacher was seated, if she can remember
The teacher may have noticed something.

Like most schools in our area we are seriously underfunded. Money is spent on educating the children and desperately trying to keep the heat running and the holes in the roof covered. The physical school is in a bad way but Ofsted outstanding last year! Most of our children are either FSM or EAL (or both) but we do our best for the children rather than have nice shiny things!

I’ve had a look at a few primary school websites (admittedly only on a mobile phone) they all just give the same sort of contact details that I’m used to seeing. Including this one in Durham which, like us gives the LADO contact details in the safeguarding policy.

A child protection emergency? Because someone gave her a fiver? How is this child at immediate risk? She's currently off school and with her family.

The NSPCC helpline might be useful but this isn't a child protection emergency.

Who said that “this” child was in immediate danger. IF there were nefarious intentions behind the money, are you honestly naive enough to believe that she was the only child given money?